


ow Earache

by sbuggbot



Category: SteamWorld Quest (Video Game)
Genre: Don't copy to another site, Fluff, Found Family, Gen, Head Canon Heavy because that’s how we roll, Hurt/Comfort, Sickfic, Soft Feels, Team Dad Orik, a touch of sad, may or may add more at another point; i got ideas but lack the drive
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-12
Updated: 2019-11-12
Packaged: 2021-01-29 01:57:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,559
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21402283
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sbuggbot/pseuds/sbuggbot
Summary: Thayne's ear really hurts. It isn't something that's new to him, but it's the first time it's happened since he and his sister found people who truly care about them.(Because like, half this tiny fandom has a love for sickfic and there is never enough I swear >_<')
Comments: 6
Kudos: 5





	ow Earache

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Sei_Bellissima](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sei_Bellissima/gifts).

> (Sei loves sickfic as much as I do so here ahdhdhsjdl)

"Mnngh..."

“Thayne, is something wrong with your ear?”

Thayne paused in the middle of scratching. He hadn’t realized that a) he had been scratching his ear again and b) that Orik was watching him. His ear _ had _ been bothering him for the past day or so, but that wasn’t a new experience to him. He’d had plenty of earaches in the past. Oftentimes they went untreated; the managers at the orphanage didn’t care enough and there wasn’t much a kid could do while living on the streets. Sometimes they got a lot worse before they got any better, but clearly, Thayne had never died from one.

It was the first time it had happened since he and his sister had met these people, though. While the two were fairly certain that they were safe around them, it wasn’t easy to let your guard down after having it up for so long. Especially when letting your guard down in the past almost always led to bad things. He was hesitant to let anyone else know that he wasn’t quite feeling well.

“Itched,” he said, keeping up a disinterested veneer. 

Orik either bought into it or decided it wasn’t worth pressing, thankfully. He muttered an “okay” and went back to following the other conversation going on at the moment.

“...Hey, at least all the boxes are all here at one place now,” Galleo said.

“Yes, but we can’t use the boxes in place of actual furniture! Especially if we want to use the stuff _ in _ the boxes.”

“Sure we can!”

“Milly…” 

While Copernica listed off a few reasons why proper furniture would last longer than cardboard, Tarah looked over at Thayne and caught his attention. _ Earache? _She asked in the twin language they had developed long ago. 

Most people didn't even recognize it as an actual attempt to communicate: it was mostly comprised of quiet noises they could subtly make with their teeth. It was even outside the range of some bots' hearing. Handy when you wanted to get a message over to someone while keeping the people around you none the wiser.

_ Yeah; it's stronger _. Stronger than the ones that went away within a few hours. 

* * *

Later, away from the prying eyes of those that were not Tarah, Thayne sat down and kicked at his ear with his foot. He never really cared about how odd it looked; it felt good and he had the flexibility to do so.

“Still hurting?” Tarah already knew what was going on; being his twin gave her that sense. Combine that with how well she knew Thayne and how many times that this happened in the past, and Thayne didn’t really need to tell her when his ear hurt.

Thayne made a discontented grunt, still scratching. Occasionally, he was lucky and whatever irritant was bothering his ear would come loose and fall out. It didn’t seem to be the case this time, though. Probably stuck water. Again. That often took a day or two at _ least _ to resolve itself, usually longer because he never had anything to treat it with.

All he really could do was go to bed and hope for the best in the morning.

* * *

As soon as he woke up, Thayne wished he was still asleep. His earache had not resolved overnight and had, in fact, drilled its way deeper into his ear. It burned but it also felt like that side of his head was underwater. There was fluid in there and it was muffling his hearing. He always hated that part; not being able to tell what was going on as easily made him nervous.

“Tarah?” he asked, quietly.

“Yeah?” She rolled over, sat up, and after a short look at him said, “I take it your ear isn’t better?”

He shook his head. “Mm-mmm. Worse, and deeper.” He grimaced and started tugging his ear. “It’s blocked this time, too.”

Tarah gave him a hug, careful to avoid touching his sensitive ear. Unsure how else to deal with the situation, she decided to fall back on how they’d handle it in the past. “I’ll go out, you hide out here and rest, yeah?”

“I want snuggles,” he mumbled, showing no indication of letting go of her anytime soon.

“I know, but if neither of us gets up then you know the others are gonna wonder…” That would, of course, end up calling attention to the fact that Thayne was sick. Illness was practically a bullseye painted on your back when you’re fending for yourself. “I’ll be back soon and I’ll even bring back some water and stuff, okay?”

Hesitantly, Thayne released her and huddled into the blankets. “Okay,” he said, making no attempt to hide his displeasure. He didn’t like being by himself when he didn’t feel well.

* * *

"Morning, Tarah," Orik said when she wandered in. Already dressed in a kimono for the day, in typical Orik fashion. "Is Thayne still in bed?"

"Yeah, I poked at him and he just grumbled at me and rolled over." It wasn't that odd of a claim; Thayne usually preferred waking up a little while later than she did. 

"He seemed pretty tired last night; I figured he'd sleep easier." Orik shrugged. "I know that that sort of thing doesn't always make sense, though."

Tarah was about to comment when Copernica wandered in, still trying to get her glasses hooked in place properly. Her foot kicked a box of stuff in the walkway and she stumbled but managed not to fall. She kicked it aside, muttering, “I thought I told Milly to put that in her room.”

A while after that Galleo came in, along with an unusually-chattery Benji and followed by an unusually-subdued Armilly. She probably would have poured her cereal directly onto the table instead of into a bowl had Coco not stepped in. "I don't know why, but Benji's been agitated all morning," Galleo said as he tried to contain the little bird. Benji was not cooperating.

"He's making that noise he does when one of us is upset or sick," Copernica noted.

"Armilly's been quiet; is that it?" Tarah asked. The reason Benji was upset was obvious to her, but she didn't want the others to figure it out.

"That's a still-half-asleep Armilly, that's pretty normal. Give her a few minutes."

"Nighttime energy is stored in the me," she said. Benji looked over at her, tilted his head in confusion, then paid her no further mind.

"He's rather strange for a Benjiro bird," Orik said. "Most of the ones I've seen only react to their owner's emotions. He seems to have a general sense for the whole party."

"I think it's 'cause I played with Milly and Coco so much when we were little." He said, absently rubbing the bird's head. "One time while we were having a sleepover when we were little, he woke Milly and I up because Copernica felt really sick."

"A very good little bird," Orik said. "I feel the way I normally do, so I doubt he's reacting to me."

"I'm good," Tarah added.

"What about Thayne, then?"

"I'm pretty sure he's just tired," Tarah said quickly and as nonchalantly as she could. "I think he had trouble falling asleep last night."

"Maybe because he didn't feel well? Benjiro birds have a way of knowing things we don't."

"He's my brother. _ Twin _ brother. Our lifesparks are literally linked. I would know if he wasn't feeling well."

"Perhaps you misread his malaise as tiredness?" Orik suggested.

Tarah's expression crumpled. "Well, if he's trying to sleep--"

Benji cut her off with an ear-splitting squawk that put Armilly to shame.

Tarah didn't appreciate being interrupted. _ "What. What do you want." _

"That's definitely his 'something's wrong' screech," Galleo said. "He'll keep doing that until he sees otherwise."

"I'm getting concerned, too…" Orik admitted, remembering the way Thayne seemed off last night in retrospect. "It might be as simple as me overthinking things and anxiety, but I want to be sure."

"We should probably check on him, even if it's just to calm Benji and Orik down. If he's asleep we can just let him be."

* * *

Orik tapped on the door. "Are you alright, Thayne?"

"Don't panic! I'm getting up, I'm getting up--" Then a thud. Thayne had failed to disentangle himself from the blankets properly and had fallen out of bed. "Ow." Moving around had _ not _been the solution here.

Having decided he was going to wait no longer, Benji launched himself at the door and headbutted it open, landing on the floor with a graceful _ thunk. _

Galleo bent down to pick his little friend up off the floor. "Why would you do that?" he asked in a similar tone he'd use with Armilly after she did something weird and probably not that bright.

"Pbrrrt," the bird replied to him before hopping down to visit Thayne.

The boy had sat upright but he was still being lethargic. Upon being visited, he gave Benji a few pets on the head.

"Benji's been agitated all morning and checking on you seemed to be the only thing that'd calm him down," Galleo said. "And Orik's anxiety…"

"Mmn, 'm ok," he said, although his strained expression and general demeanor said otherwise. "It's fine."

It wasn't lost on Orik. "Thayne, is there something you don't want us to know about?"

"No!" Thayne glared at Orik...then, his stern disposition slowly cracked like ice on a lake and he broke down crying. He couldn't hide his misery any longer. His body ached, his head hurt, and there was so much pressure behind his ear that he thought it would burst soon.

As Tarah shouldered her way past to hug Thayne, Orik knelt down to the twins' level with a deeply concerned frown. "What's wrong?" he asked, voice gentle and soft.

He whined, clutching his ear. Tarah hugged him tighter and looked ready to defend him at a moment's notice. "Don't be mad…" he said as he peeked around her shoulder.

"I'm not mad, Thayne, I promise," Orik said as he touched a hand to his chest.

Thayne buried his face against Tarah. "Disappointed, mad, same difference!" he choked out between sobs, shaking. Tarah seemed to be on the verge of tears herself from seeing him so upset.

"I'm not upset at you, I'm _ worried. _" His voice wavered the tiniest bit as he said that.

He only clung onto his sister harder. Tarah was getting really worried too; it had been _ ages _ since Thayne had cried from one of his earaches. After meeting Orik's gaze for a few moments, she said, "His ear's been bothering him since last night…" 

Orik reached over to prod at the ear Thayne had been worrying over so much. He couldn't move it enough to get a good look inside without eliciting a whimper from Thayne and a death glare from Tarah, but the way it felt abnormally warm told him enough. He rubbed the top of Thayne's head. "It definitely isn't just a random pain, I can tell that much."

Another little whimper as Thayne managed to scoot even closer to his sister and cling onto her.

Galleo hummed in thought. “I’ll go see if Copernica knows anything that might help with that,” he muttered before picking Benji back up and leaving the room.

Orik remained in the room and tried to console Thayne, rubbing his back and reassuring him that he was here. Tarah continued to hold him, less defensively now but just as caring as before. While Thayne’s grip on Tarah had loosened a bit as he leaned into Orik, he still wasn’t intent on letting go of her.

“You’re allowed to go back to bed if you want, nobody’s going to stop you.” Not that anyone would stop him normally, but Orik wanted to be sure Thayne knew that. He didn’t know what he had been through in his past, what rules had been put in place.

Thayne shook his head. Now that he recognized the fact that he wasn’t in danger, he didn’t want to be left by himself. “I wanna sit out there,” he mumbled.

* * *

Orik walked back to the living area with Thayne on his hip and Tarah following close behind them. He couldn’t help but notice that the little one felt warmer than normal against him, but he wasn’t shocked by this.

“Did you figure something out for Thayne?” Tarah asked. If these people were willing to help her and her brother, she wasn’t going to turn them away. Not with how much this incident was affecting him…

“I did, actually. Alchemy taught me some good home remedies for these sorts of things,” Copernica said. “I made a compress for him, that should help.”

“Will it hurt? It isn’t hexed or anything, is it?” Thayne asked as Orik sat down with him on the couch.

“No, it’s just a cool towel with a few herbs that help with irritation wrapped inside.” She rattled off a couple of the more commonly-known ones. Then she saw Armilly giving some of the leftover ingredients a certain Look. Before she could do anything reckless, Copernica said, “Armilly, put my ingredients down. Not all of those are safe to be taken internally.”

“Oh.”

“You act like nobody feeds you sometimes,” Galleo muttered.

Copernica knelt down to give the compress to Thayne and paused. “It’ll work better if it’s directly against your head instead of on your hood,” she told him. 

Thayne mumbled something so quietly nobody could make it out, but carefully pulled his hood down. Despite trying his best to not agitate it, he still winced when his hood tugged on and moved his sore ear some.

“This one?” After Thayne nodded, Copernica pressed the cloth against that side and had him hold it in place. It felt delightfully cool against the burning in his ear, but not so cold that it was uncomfortable for him. “There, that should help...let me know if it starts stinging because it isn’t supposed to do that, okay?”

“Okay. Thank you, Copernica,” he mumbled. Feeling a little better now, he curled up and snuggled into his spot on the couch. Orik was his pillow now and there was nothing the man could do about it. His robe was soft and Thayne liked the feel of it very much.

Given the situation, Orik didn’t really mind, though. He mainly wanted the twins to feel safe and comfortable, and if Thayne felt comfortable snuggled up to him, he was not going to discourage him. Tarah hopped up onto the couch so she could sit with Thayne, too. It gave them both peace of mind.

“Weren’t you wanting to get a new frame for your mattress today?” Galleo asked Copernica as she cleaned up her supplies.

“Yeah, since my old bedframe just _ broke _ while we were trying to fit it through the door.”

“I didn’t **mean **to break it!!”

“Oh, I know you didn’t, sometimes things happen.” Copernica reached up to pat his shoulder.

“So you’re not just going to sleep in a big pile of pillows on the floor?” Armilly asked.

“As fun as that sounds, they’d be hard to wrangle and keep clean after a while…” She was probably going to still have a pile in her room anyway; Copernica just wasn’t going to sleep in it every night.

**Author's Note:**

> Fun fact I came the closest I probably ever have to crying while fic-writing while writing the part when Thayne was crying. He's so Babey at times and he needs all the hugs ;-;


End file.
